Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

The Haunting of Hill House Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 9, 2019

Netflix's evolution from content delivery to content creation and powerhouse position in the entertainment landscape seemed to permeate popular culture with the timely political drama House of Cards, reach its peak with the stellar Stranger Things, and expand into the mainstream with several Marvel adaptations. The company's The Haunting of Hill House, a ten-part series created by Mike Flanagan (director, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Oculus) and based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson, is the company's latest praiseworthy project, a terrifyingly slow-burn, time-shift character study that focuses on five siblings and their formative experiences in an expansive haunted house, experiences that shaped their life directions and relationships with one another.

In the early 1990s, the five Crain children -- Steven (Paxton Singleton), Shirley (Lulu Wilson), Luke (Julian Hilliard), Theo (Mckenna Grace), and Nell (Violet McGraw) -- live with their parents Hugh (Timothy Hutton) and Olivia (Carla Gugino) in a large palatial estate that their parents hope to renovate and flip for profit in order to build their dream home. Their time at the house proves formative. It's haunted, they believe, and each experiences their own traumatic events that propel them into adulthood with baggage, peculiarities, fears, and psychological breaks and disconnects. For some, they have transformed their experiences into careers. For others, brokenness has followed. Now adults, Steven (Michiel Huisman) is a best-selling author who has turned his life in the house into a popular book. Shirley (Elizabeth Reaser) has found career as a mortician. Theo (Kate Siegel) is a psychologist with a peculiar gift. Luke (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is a drug addict. When Luke's twin sister Nell (Victoria Pedretti) dies, the remaining four siblings have no choice but to open old wounds and confront past fears in the present.

Perhaps the best asset afforded to The Haunting of Hill House is time: not only the time shifts between then and now but also the time the ten episode length affords to the storytellers to create a more expansive world and more finely and fully explore its characters. And never is time wasted. Flanagan, who directs all ten episodes, and his team of writers create a slowly paced and simmering tale of deeply seeded horror, born of both terrifying oddities and traumatic occurrences that might befall anyone, haunted house in their lives or not. The show delves into each character fully and carefully, often juxtaposing influencing moments from their youths with paralleling events in their presents. It can be confusing at the outset; the show introduces a number of characters and sets into motion several critical plot points right off the bat. It takes a full episode-plus to get a grasp on it all, but it is in turn a very rewarding exercise in psychological trauma, real and perceived terror, and perhaps most interestingly and engagingly an exploration of life paths as the audience bears witness to each character's pivotal, formative moments and how they greatly impact the individual arc through life and the collective relationships they share and build. This is not a haunted house show, per se. It's an exploration of siblings and souls, each of them defined by the paranormal but also by life and its inescapable and immutable realities that are so often thrust upon the young, before their time, before they're ready to absorb, process, and learn from it. This is a high point study in psychology for the screen that just so happens to be wrapped in tones of terror.

The Haunting of Hill House, then, seemingly isn't about the scares, but it is. The story is built by and through the scares. It's a product of them, but they are not the focus. It's not just the creeps and bumps but rather what those creep and bumps mean long after the fact. It's about the haunting of the mind and soul as a byproduct of a haunted house. It's the psychological connection, with some deeper tones amidst some admittedly scary scenes crafted in a more traditional manner, but audiences should adjust expectations away from a classic "Haunted House" film and towards dark family drama. It's a rewarding hybrid that's exceptionally well acted. The cast lives the trauma, then and now, considering the collective cast on both ends. The connective tissue between the younger and older versions is vital, and once the audience gets a grip on who's who and what's what and where's where the show comes alive with expressive performances that explore deeply held scars and formative moments that intertwine well beyond simple shared experiences. Supported by stellar production design, there's little that's amiss with The Haunting of Hill House, a modern classic made for more discerning audiences who are not so much looking for a bump-in-the-night scare but rather open to exploring deep wounds and the innermost essences of its characters.

The Haunting of Hill House Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The digitally photographed The Haunting of Hill House translates exceptionally well to Blu-ray. The program maintains a gray cast about it, a bleak, barren color spectrum that desaturates and deemphasizes core colors in favor of gray and blue shades that effectively, clearly, and convincingly convey a certain grim aesthetic that compliments the narrative and emotional tones that run throughout. Even in well lit scenes that might otherwise be teeming with warmth and abundant tonal variation, there's an unmistakable absence of color depth and pop. It's effective and the Blu-ray conveys the show's visual parameters quite nicely. Additionally, the material is presented with firm, accurate textural awareness and clarity. Facial details are spot-on, revealing hairs, pores, and makeup with striking efficiency and clarity. Location details are impressively firm and accurate, from the estate's complex interiors and exteriors to the present day locales such as home accents and odds and ends in a morgue. Skin tones are greatly influenced by any given location's lighting and the greater desaturation. Black levels hold up well throughout. The image shows no major examples of source noise but banding is a fairly frequent mar against various backgrounds; see, all in episode one, walls at the 18:40 mark, along the sky at the 22:30 mark, and along another wall at the 44:45 mark for just several of numerous examples throughout the season. Fortunately banding is the only major issue to distract from an otherwise finely engineered bit off video excellence.

The Haunting of Hill House Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The story of The Haunting of Hill House unfolds on Blu-ray by way of an active and engaged Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is at its most intense and full bodied when it's replicating various scares from inside the house during the characters' youths, folding in both positive atmospherics and potent actions with equal parts perfect placement and devastating detail. Even though it's limited to the 5.1 channel configuration -- there's no 7.1 or Atmos/DTS:X offering here to expand the stage and perhaps more precisely engage the listener -- there's no feel for spacial want. The track can and often does open considerably in its delivery of smaller creaks and moans and more aggressive slams and bangs. In chapter four of episode two, there is as startling assault of slams on the wall that engage all over the stage with amazing intensity and stage detail. It's one of the most active, demanding, and satisfying moments the track has to offer, a symphony of terror that has a big impact on those who experience it in-show and those in the audience, too. At the same time, the track can be reserved and subtle, allowing for intense focus on dialogue and exploration of character interaction and their own inner beings, both critical to the story well beyond the sounds that define so many of their core experiences: world-defining episodes and personally shaping responses. The track is just as much at home in whispered dialogue as it is intense output, vital in delivering the entire spectrum and best defining the program's entire range of dramatic characteristics. Indeed, no matter the sonic event, the track is never lacking width, immersion, and low end engagement. Rounded into form by clear, expressive, well prioritized, and naturally positioned and occurring dialogue, The Haunting of Hill House's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack is a clear-cut winner.

The Haunting of Hill House Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Haunting of Hill House contains select episode commentaries and extended episodes. No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does ship with an embossed slipcover.

Disc One:

• Extended Episode with Commentary (1080p, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, 1:04:58): For "Steven Sees a Ghost:" Director Mike Flanagan.

Disc Two:

• Extended Episode with Commentary (1080p, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, 1:12:43): For "The Bent-Neck Lady:" Director Mike Flanagan.
• Audio Commentary: For "Two Storms:" Director Mike Flanagan.

Disc Three:

• Extended Episode with Commentary (1080p, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, 1:14:38): For "Silence Lay Steadily:" Director Mike Flanagan.

The Haunting of Hill House Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Haunting of Hill House is a deliberately paced, slow burn, captivating character drama that extends well beyond the realm of today's cinematic haunts and instead goes directly into the hearts of its characters. Psychologically complex, emotionally powerful, purposefully performed, and exceedingly well made, this is the latest bit of storytelling excellence from Netflix. Paramount's Blu-ray is of fine quality. Supplements are limited to a few extended explodes and commentaries but video and audio presentations are first-rate. Highly recommended.